Interviews Renee H. Shea Monique Truong / Photo © Haruka Sakaguchi Monique Truong, who came to the United States in 1975 as a refugee from Vietnam, began exploring untold and ignored histories in her first novel, The Book of Salt (2003), told through the voice of Binh, the cook of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas in Paris. Her autobiographical second novel, Bitter in the Mouth (2010) is a coming-of-age story set in North Carolina. In her most recent novel, The Sweetest Fruits (Viking, 2019), Truong tells the story of Lafcadio Hearn from the perspective of three women: his mother, Rosa; his first wife, Alethea; and his Japanese wife, Setsu. Shea: At its core, The Sweetest Fruits is a story about storytelling—and it’s Russian dolls of narrative! It’s not only that three different women have their say about Hearn and their relationship with him, but each is telling her story to a specific audience—so issues of mediation and agency add further complications, as do oral vs. written stories and translation. How did you arrive at this approach instead of just telling the story in the voice of one person, then the next, then the next? Truong: This question is a Russian doll of inquiries! You’re absolutely right that the novel is interested in the different ways that stories are transmitted to us: oral vs. written, in our mother tongue vs. in translation, private story vs. public history, women’s voices vs. men’s, face-to-face vs.... Continue reading at 'World Literature Today'
[ World Literature Today | 2019-09-17 13:54:26 UTC ]
Find the best historical fiction series that both engages and entertains, with lively and diverse characters. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2020-12-18 11:38:00 UTC ]
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These eight brilliant novels of historical fiction featuring intergenerational family sagas tell sweeping and epic tales, including Disoriental by Négar Djavadi, translated by Tina A. Kover. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2020-12-16 11:39:00 UTC ]
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The master of the Cold War thriller, John le Carré, died Saturday at 89. In 2016, 'PW' took a deep dive into the nearly 60-year literary of le Carré and offered a data visualization of some highlights from his long literary career. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-12-14 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Courtney Milan explains how a group of romance novelists rallied behind one of their own: Stacey Abrams. Continue reading at Slate
[ Slate | 2020-12-07 19:30:17 UTC ]
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'Not being Arab nor African enough,' translator Sawad Hussain writes, female writers aren't supported by Sudan's 'literary ecosystem.' The post Words Without Borders in December: Female Sudanese Novelists ‘Caught in a Limbo’ appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2020-12-02 16:34:21 UTC ]
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The influential cookbook author helped shape the nation’s culinary identity—for better and for worse. Continue reading at The Atlantic
[ The Atlantic | 2020-11-29 13:00:00 UTC ]
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“If you have a kitchen and cook and live by yourself … this cookbook is for you.” Continue reading at Slate
[ Slate | 2020-11-26 11:00:00 UTC ]
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Kyle Books, part of the Octopus Publishing Group, will published Katie and Giancarlo Caldesi's The 30 Minute Diabetes Cookbook: Eat to Beat Diabetes with 100 Easy Low‐carb Recipes in March 2021. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-25 21:58:13 UTC ]
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Headline Home is publishing a cookbook by chef Raymond Blanc OBE to accompany his new ITV television series focusing on simple recipes for home cooks. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-23 20:53:47 UTC ]
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One of four debut novelists among the six writers shortlisted this year, Stuart wins for 'Shuggie Bain,' also a National Book Award finalist. The post Douglas Stuart Wins the 2020 Booker Prize for ‘Shuggie Bain’ appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2020-11-19 20:23:21 UTC ]
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This morning, Publishers Marketplace reported that two-time Booker Prize winner and historical fiction supremo Hilary Mantel has a new short story collection on the horizon. Learning to Talk, which will be released by Holt at some point next year, is billed as “a collection of loosely... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-11-18 18:07:12 UTC ]
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Every year, we ask The Center for Fiction First Novel Prize Finalists to reminisce about the first book they fell in love with. This year, we asked Finalists to reflect not just on the first story that stole their heart, but the story that seeded curiosity and empathy for the plight of others... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-11-17 09:48:30 UTC ]
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Hardie Grant is to publish Romy Gill's second cookbook, On The Himalayan Trail: Recipes and Stories from Kashmir to Leh, in April 2022. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-05 14:24:16 UTC ]
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Colm Tóibín gives the third installment to the Words Ireland Lecture Series. This modern master discusses the craft of James Joyce—and the idea of craft itself. Is craft a concept more suited to poetry? Could strict ideas around craft actually be a hindrance to novelists and short story writers?... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-11-04 09:48:28 UTC ]
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AS AN EXPRESSIVE MEDIUM, video games have a strange way of reducing central concepts of modernist art and theory to basic operational elements. The technical specifications of “point of view” that have preoccupied novelists since the turn of the 20th century are crudely literalized within game... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books
[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2020-10-31 17:00:02 UTC ]
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Author Shirley Jackson often responded to readers’ letters; this one, written in 1962 after republication of her historical fiction for juveniles, The Witchcraft of Salem Village, seems uncannily prescient for our times. –Laurence Jackson Hyman, editor of the forthcoming The Collected Letters of... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-10-30 08:49:48 UTC ]
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Writers Rachel Howzell Hall, Attica Locke and Ivy Pochoda talked with Times reporter James Queally for a 2020 Los Angeles Times Festival of Books event. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2020-10-24 16:06:42 UTC ]
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Seven Dials is publishing a new cookbook containing over 100 "budget-friendly" recipes that can be prepared in under 20 minutes, and cost readers less than £20 a week. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-10-09 11:42:02 UTC ]
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Bi and lesbian books from the last two decades for fans of literary fiction, from haunting collections to atmospheric historical fiction like Miss Timmins’ School for Girls by Nayana Currimbhoy. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2020-10-02 10:38:36 UTC ]
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My cookbooks live on a shelf above my writing desk. Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking and The New York Times Cookbook passed down to me by grandma, The Vegetarian Epicure and In Pursuit of Flavor by my mother. Nestled between them is a slim spine you won’t find anywhere else—it’s long been... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-10-01 08:48:59 UTC ]
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